Smooth chocolate, fresh berries and a strawberry-flavoured cream cheese filling make these Chocolate Berry Cups a very popular dessert.

All contained in a bite (or two) sized choc cup, they are especially perfect to serve at a party or cocktail style event.

And, yes, they taste every bit as good as they look!

The recipe for Chocolate Berry Cups

I've based this recipe on a picture in an old set of recipe cards I found at an op shop along with my memories of my mum's chocolate making in the 1980s.

I have lovely memories of my mum making homemade chocolates at Christmas. She had many different plastic moulds and the chocolates would be filled with caramel or flavoured cream cheese.

The cream cheese combined with chocolate is just magic. Throw the fresh berries in and serve it in a chocolate cup and it's next-level good.

I think homemade chocolate making was a popular idea in the 1980s, but we all seem to be too busy now to bother with such things!

But it's worth making the chocolate cups. They were much easier to master than I anticipated and you don't need any fancy moulds or brushes. Just a pastry brush, mini patty pans and cooking oil spray. All of which you should be able to buy at the supermarket if you don't already have them in your kitchen.

And I include step-by-step instructions below to make the process super simple.

What you'll need

Equipment

Before you start, make sure you have:

12 mini patty pans
cooking oil spray
pastry brush
large piping nozzle and piping bag (otherwise, you can simply spoon the filling into the cups).

Ingredients

The ingredient list includes:

chocolate, milk or dark
cream cheese
icing sugar
fresh berries (I've used strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries here)
strawberry essence
pink food colouring.

How to make Chocolate Berry Cups

Start by preparing the patty pans. Spray the entire inside of the patty pans with cooking oil spray.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave proof bowl using 20 second bursts in the microwave and stirring between each burst until the chocolate is melted.

Spoon about two teaspoons of melted chocolate into each patty pan.

Spread the melted chocolate over the entire inside of the patty pan by angling the patty pan from side to side and by using a small pastry brush.

Don't worry if there are a few places where the chocolate isn't as thick as we'll add a second coat of chocolate.

Place into the fridge for at least half an hour to set hard.

Re-melt the remaining chocolate.

Using the pastry brush, add another coat to the patty pans, mostly the sides where the chocolate is likely thinnest.

Place into fridge again for at least half an hour to set hard.

Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together on high for 2-3 minutes.

Add the strawberry essence and pink colouring and stir to combine.

Wash and dry the berries and then cut into pieces.

Take chocolate cups from the fridge and spoon or pipe the cream cheese mixture into the cups.

Decorate with the berry pieces.

Place into the fridge until it's time to serve the choc berry cups.

Tips for success

Handle the chocolate cups as little as possible to avoid the warmth of your hands melting the chocolate and ruining the shape of the cups.
Choc Berry Cups will last 2-3 days in the fridge, though it's best to chop berries and decorate on the day you plan to serve them.
You could use full size patty pans and make 6 choc berry cups.

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